I don’t even know if this sidebar joke will work until it posts, like, will the punctuation all display as desired? Anyway, Mano had the kind of post a bunch of self-important blowhards might want to respond to in kind, like “why i’m an atheist” or “the benefits of my raw hog fat diet.” Not an unworthy subject, simply, why he blogs. Just sayin’ that teases the question from the minds of other bloggers, compels people to think, hey, that’s something I do that makes me cool and special, I’d better tell everyone about it. Or will it provoke that response? We’ll see what the rest of the sidebar looks like tomorrow.
I don’t have time to make a long post of this, so I’ll hit the bullets.
- Lofty-minded, I believe that engaging in the discourse of civilization holds the potential to turn hearts and minds. To win a vote, to catch the attention of a rich bitch or lawmaker at a key moment. To somehow make the world a better place. Admittedly, I’m too much of a coward and bum to do this where it would really matter, on social media, but hey, according to my stats at least one person in The Department of the Interior visited my site without having cookies disabled, at some point in the past. Hello, beautiful.
– - Vaingloriously, I believe on some level, despite all evidence to the contrary, that I am that special kind of genius who could accidentally stumble upon the cure for everything, if I just keep talking, keep thinking, keep engaging with my fellow philosophers in the agora. Let us carry the hems of our togas and get socratic with each other.
– - Beggarly*, I imagine the waning fame of PZ and Mano can elevate the visibility of any commercial endeavors I may choose to promote through this space. I intend to sell books someday, and being in that sidebar, staying in the awareness of a potential
audiencemarket, well, it just makes good sense. Again, gooder sense if this was social media, but eh, fuck that shit.
Well now, I hope that clarifies things for the all of none of you who were curious. Thus ends my entry to this discussion.
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*I use this term in lieu of “greedily,” because greed to have one’s basic needs met is not greed at all. Fuck a motherfucker that thinks that, but also fuck me for not thinking of a better word, heh.
the punctuation works! muahahahaha
I think the comma should be outside the quote mark.
“Why?”, I blog.
not in the usa, at least, not per my fascist 6th grade teacher
looks like im the only blogger that took the bait. vainglorious, babes.
buncha spambots using this post as a chewtoy
So, the word I might suggest would be “Capitalizing” in lieu of “Beggarly”. You hope to capitalize on the waning blogging by PZ and Mano to keep a potential market interested.
To be fair, however, only the latest posts from any of the bloggers on the FTB network are listed in the sidebar, so at best those will be the top two entries. As nine or ten blogs show up, it just means you need to be more prolific than Charly and Marcus, who in my observation are the next most prolific bloggers (and even Marcus is slowing down a bit). I think you are safe.
To your other points, working backwards, you are a special kind of genius. I’ve known a few failed writers in my time, and a couple successful ones. Success seems to require three things; skill in writing, perseverance, and being noticed. A couple months ago there was an article in The New Yorker about how Anthony Bourdin broke into writing. He wrote an article “Don’t Order Seafood on Mondays” (IIRC) which was rejected, but it circulated, and an editor from The New Yorker decided to use it as a short. When he wrote it he thought it would give the line cooks in the restaurant he was working in a laugh. But, by accident, it launched a new career.
To your lofty goal of changing minds, or turning heads, I don’t think you are prohibited from testing an idea here, seeing how it flies, and then re-writing it for submission to a wider read publication. One of the things which I think pushed Terry Pratchett from being a mediocre writer to a great one was that for a long time he participated on USNET, including getting feedback for his ideas and even putting sample prose on USNET to be ripped apart by his fans. Similarly, when the Marx Brothers were working on a new movie, they toured the US with the skits they planned to use. They figured out what an audience would laugh at by testing the acts on audiences, and keeping what worked. It’s hard work, and it can be difficult watching your babies be eviscerated by your fans, but it does hone your skills.
I have thought about commenting on Mano’s topic with one of my TL/DR comments about why I comment. But, it was really Too Long/Didn’t Write. Besides, I added enough characters to Mano’s blog on the Free Will topic. Time to infest yours for a little bit. (Unless Mano places a tempting topic in front of me. I really have no self control.)
this might be the nicest thing that’s been said of me in a while. thanks! i don’t know if i have the fortitude to truly embrace tha fire of harsh critique tho.
Expanding on flex’s ‘being noticed’ point, it is one of the things that the more self-relective writers I read have all said at one point or another – they were lucky, their writing got in front of someone who dug it, who was prepared to push them to be better and for their writing to be seen. I can’t give you that, but I do hope someone comes along who can.
thanks. i have been pretty lucky in life. does that mean i’m due for a fall, or will the baloney keep rollin’?
i kinda would have liked to see the other bloggers give their whys and wherefores